Dumb Question: About A Trach- What Am I Missing?

[bollweevil]

:down:A colleague put a nasal O2 cannula on a trach patient. Is there any way this would have delivered O2 to this patient? Or am I missing something?

[aerorunner80, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN]

Was the trach capped?

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Was the cuff inflated?

I've never seen 02 delivered this way.

[bollweevil]

voice prosthesis was in. No cuff. This is a chronic trach.

[nurseby07]

If his passe muir (sp) was in then he was getting the o2.

[RENAISSANCE RN]

most people when they do a wean, with pmv or not have a trach mask with humidifier. ( the strait o2 is very drying). It all depends on the situation. I have seen o2 piped into the side port of a pmv. trach pts are neck breathers. so usually the situation is the above.

I am not an expert, but sometimes if a pt is not getting enough via the tm, then supplement o2 via nc is given.

Why dont you ask the person who this, the rationale behind. Just say " I was wondering the rationale behind that, not accusingly, just questioning"

Let us know. You have spiked my curiousity.

[kcochrane]

On our floor we've had several trach residents that wore O2 NC during the day when the trac was plugged and than O2 via trach mask at night when it was unplugged. Sometimes trachs are not needed for all the breathing, many people can still and do still breath through their noses and mouths.

[snowfreeze, BSN, RN]

There is one theory that blowing O2 in through the nose on a weaning trach patient capped will encourage or remind to nose breath.

[HangTen!]

This is a Very Good question!

I look forward to hearing the rationale behind this. I read plausible responses already, ie not all trachs are 100% respiratory in nature, the nasal canula May trigger the breathing reflexes (interesting theory! If this was a game show, I would buy that:)), capped trachs etc.

Was your patient totally vent dependent?

[student456]

Ive seen 02 be hooked up directly to the Trach on a patient....the oxygen tube would be put onto this little adapter thing that we used to do puffs of combivent into the trach. so the oxygen was going directly into the trach instead of having nasal cannulas

has anyone else seen this?